L. M. (Lewis Marshall) Hagood

Born in 1853 and later identified in library records as Lewis Marshall Hagood, he was an American Methodist Episcopal clergyman whose surviving reputation today rests mainly on his religious and historical writing. His best-known book, The Colored Man in the Methodist Episcopal Church, was published in 1890 and examines the place of Black Methodists within the church.

The book suggests a writer deeply engaged with questions of race, denomination, and public life in the post–Civil War United States. Because easily verifiable biographical sources on him are limited, many personal details are unclear, but catalog records consistently give his lifespan as 1853–1936.

For modern listeners, Hagood is most interesting as a voice from inside American Protestant institutions at a time when churches were wrestling with segregation, authority, and reform. His work can be read both as religious commentary and as a historical document of its era.